Note From The Editor: This posting, entitled “Salute To The Champions,”will include write-ups on both the season, the post-season, a very large photo gallery which will show in pictures what the regular season and post-season looked like from a player’s and coaches “game-day” perspective. Our deluxe production wil also include an EXCLUSIVE 1hr. & 15 minute full game video of the recent Patriotic Bowlgame, shot by the incredibly talented Erik Sarni. We hope you enjoy, like, comment, and share our posting with as many of your friends, family, associates, and other ELAC alumni as possible. Our goal is to reach at least 1,000 new viewers on all available social networks. Please help to spread the good news about the 2016 “Season of Champions.“ Go Huskies!!

2016 Season’s Recap: There’s a tremendous narrative taking place in the State JUCO football community about the resurgent ELAC “Huskies” program, bookmarked forever in time by one of the most incredible and most successful turn-around for its players, coaches, administration, trainers, announcers, student-body, stat team, band members, cheer group, and the extremely supportive community. But, afterall, we do have a great story to tell so let’s begin at the start of the season.

When new Head Coach, Bobby Godinez was selected as the man for the job in March of this year, we knew he was coming from an outstanding background, having played collegiately for the San Jose State Spartans and for having been an Assistant Coach, most recently in 2015, at Victor Valley Community College and prior to that at Pasadena City College and Mt. San Antonio College. Both, very important credits on his resumé. To read the full Press Release on Coach Godinez’s hiring, click here.

Once he settled into his duties, held his first official “Spring” practice session, and then day-by-day, week-by-week, andgame-by-game, Coach Godinez, was revamping and retooling his 60+ squad into the going away winners of the Southern California Football Association’s (SCFA)-American Division/Metro Conference while racking up a most impressive (8-2) overall record and a perfect (6-0) record in conference play. This calculated and painstaking effort would earn the Huskies their first post-season bowl game since 2011, when former ELAC standout, QB Aaron Cantu, Southern Utah University (SUU) and Company won the SCFA/South Coast Conference/American Division Championship Bowl game (42-28) over the No. 1 seed, Santa Monica Corsairs.

After emphatically closing out the regular season on 11/12/16 with a huge (30-24) win over rival Glendale Community College, the customary playoff wait was in order until the CCCAA/SCFA would determine what Bowl game the Huskies had been selected to play in. Very quickly, the word came to Coach Godinez that the Huskies would face the College of the Desert’s Roadrunners in the Patriotic Bowl, that would be held in Palm Desert, CA. on 11/19/16. With only a five day block of time for practice, the highly confident Huskies went to work and held a solid week of focused preparation. The rest is now history.

Patriotic Bowl-Game Recap: Don’t let the final score mislead you on this game. The first quarter belonged to the Huskies, as they built up a 21-0 lead. Their first three scores came in the following rapid-fire manner—a 1 yd. run by QB/Jonathan Santos, followed by a Shaquille Shelton3yd. run, and then a 15 yd. pass from Santos to Cemaj Douglas. But the College of the Desert would confidently answer back with three TDs narrowing the score by halftime to 28-20, Huskies. The Road Runners would then add two TDs and a field goal to overtake the Huskies at the 7:38 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, taking a 37-28 lead as theyapparently changed their fortunes by adding Mr. Momentum to their line-up. However, the Huskies would answer on their possession at the 7:27 mark of the period with a 75 yd. bomb from Santos to WR/Branden Peterson, cutting the lead to 37-35. This would end the 3rd quarter’s scoring.

Then, the fourth quarter “showtime” began with QB/Jonathan Santos hitting his WR/Kenny Allen with a 28 yd scoring pass, moving the score to 42-37, Huskies. After ELAC’s defense held the Roadrunners on downs, the offense took over, and on their next possession, let’s for a moment compare it to a giant “tsunami,” the Huskies responded with a “search and destroy” mission that would end the College of the Desert’s chances to recover from its devastating aftermath. Here’s what the Huskies did to finish off their opponent…they went to their vaunted “air attack” and connected on four more TD passes in the quarter, the first coming from Game MVP, QB/Jonathan Santos to his WR/Kenny Allen, followed by two in a row to WR/Kenny Davenport, and the final one from reserve QB/Levi Wells to Allen. After this blistering scoring barrage by air, the Road Runners were severely wounded and would not score again. And for emphasis, Vicente Luis Juan set another personal and school record with nine straight PATs in a single game. After all five of these unanswered, consecutive scoring drives, and record-breaking performances, the Huskies had propelled themselves to their most coveted win of the season.

And finally, what resulted in nearly a final basketball game score, the last scoreboard reading of the season would show ELAC (63), College of the Desert (37). This would be permanently imprinted in the official CCCAA/SCFA record book as the 2016 winners of the Patriotic Bowl. As Coach Godinez stated after the victory, “We are a program that is truly on the rise.” Expectations for 2017 are extremely high for the Huskies. And so, with this story’s textbook ending, the Huskies’ fantastic race to the top was over and the Bobby Godinez coaching era was now officially underway.

We send our most meaningful well wishes and much deserved Congrats to the entire team, its coaches, trainers, and many other of ELAC’s on-campus supporters. By: Rico Cabrera, Sr./Editor, EastLASportsScene.Com

Full Game Statistical Summary, clickhere. & Full Game Write-Up of the Patriotic Bowl By Tadzio Garcia, clickhere.

[For Your Information]: In all three of its post-season Bowl games, ELAC has won each game. Here is a brief listing of all three Head Coaches of those teams.

2016/Bobby Godinez, CCCAA/SCFA American Division/Metro League “Coach of the Year.”

2011/Lynn Cain CCCAA/SCFA Mountain Conference “Coach of the Year.” [Cainwas a player on the 1974 State Championship Team. He holds ELAC records for most points scored in a season (181); most rushing yards season (1,666); most rushing attempts season (295); and most rushing touchdowns season (27). All records occurred in the 1974 season].

[Special Mention]:QB/Aaron Cantu set (14) ELAC football records in 2011 & 2012. He is currently a teacher with the Montebello School District and an Assistant Football Coach at Schurr HS.

Credits: Contributor, Tadzio Garcia, ELAC Sports writer and Photographer, (Photo credits from several season games are shown in the last group of photos in the gallery); Erik Sarni, Patriotic Bowl photo gallery and game video, EastLASportsScene.Com; and Mario Villegas, Coach Godinez photo in CCCAA Press Release, ELAC Sports Information.